The broad long-term objective of this application is to build and strengthen the research Infrastructure in pharmaceutics in order to facilitate the development of a Center for Drug Delivery. In order to optimize drug delivery approaches, the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic behavior of drugs can be altered by: (a) linking drugs to carriers or ligands which can target them to the site of action; (b) incorporating polymeric delivery systems which can deliver the drug at specified times and controlled rates; and (c) dispersing a drug in semi-solid and solid matrices such as biodegradable gels and tablets to produce sustained action. However, a thorough understanding of the physicochemical, biochemical, pharmacological and intracellular phenomena is required to provide a better understanding of the underlying factors influencing the design, fabrication and release of the drug fi-orn these systems. Therefore, the overall goal of this application is to establish a Center for Drug Deliver y with emphasis on controlled release and targeted delivery systems. The establishment of this Center will allow the faculty to: (a) establish a research environment which will foster intra- and interdisciplinary research with other scientists, (b) generate necessary preliminary data in order to compete for extramural funding for R series grants such as R01, R15 and R29-1 (c) provide opportunities for training minority scientists in the area of drugdeliveryl(d) develop novel delivery systems (including vaccines) for treating various disease states for, e.g., cancer, Alzheimer and influenza, and (e) provide counseling, educational and support (involving formulation) services to the community for various health-related needs in the area of pharmaceutics.